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clear roof light

G

GrahamDerby

Today a mobile fitter came and removed the roof fan from the kitchen area and replace it with a clear light, what a difference, i now have light in the middle of the van!!!!!!. I never used the fan and it stopped a lot of light coming in . Wish i had it done years ago, good job at a good price.
 
xtrailman said:
One mans meat...
I wouldn't want one again, too noisy and not very effective.
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The fans I've had have only been noisy on full speed - which is only used for a short time when the caravan's been shut all day in a heatwave, very effectively too - it's normally only used on the 2nd of 6 fan speeds.

Like WC, we use the fan when cooking to clear excess heat and stop the smoke alarm activating.
 
Some interesting comments, I found that not only did it block out the light , but when i wound up the vent it would only open one way. If there was a breeze from the back of the van no matter what speed the fan was on it was blowing back into the vent. With this new light i can angle the light so it opens down wind therefore sucking any cooking steam etc away. Nice to hear some people still have a battery in the smoke detector, i find most people take it out as it goes of all the time.
 
GrahamDerby said:
Nice to hear some people still have a battery in the smoke detector, i find most people take it out as it goes of all the time.
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As a safety practitioner I consider removing batteries from smoke detectors VERY foolhardy.
 
GrahamDerby said:
Nice to hear some people still have a battery in the smoke detector, i find most people take it out as it goes of all the time.
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That's worrying - but given human nature I'm not surprised.

We have working smoke detectors in every room of the house, except kitchen and bathroom - all regularly tested and batteries changed as appropriate.
 
.......there is a simple modification that can be used to make a smoke alarm more user friendly in a caravan environment.

You simply fit an on/off switch mounted on the outer casing.
I only have the smoke alarm turned on when we are actually sleeping in the caravan so it is turned on last thing at night and off first thing in the morning.
I have paired these actions in my head with locking and unlocking the door so never forget .
Turning the power to the alarm on also puts the alarm through an audible 2 second test sequence so you test that it is working every night.

I used a Sub mini toggle switch from Maplin.........drilled a hole through the plastic casing where it would fit and be convenient to operate..........cut the positive feed wire from the battery and connected it to one switch terminal...........connected the other switch terminal to the positive feed wire to the circuit board.

No more false annoying actuations during the day whilst still maintaining safety at night
.............and the battery lasts forever!
 
We did have a fan in our Eldiss and found it useful. It was quiet enough on the low speed which gave enough air movement to keep the temperature down provided you used a higher setting first. We had a second roof light so never had a problem with it not letting light in but it certainly was of no use for that.
As for the battery in the fire alarm even coming from a safety background I am not keen on them. I do find it difficult to believe that if the caravan catches fire it will not wake you up just as quickly as the alarm but having had one imposed on us we do keep the battery in.
 
I replaced mine with a clear one much better as you say.

I fitted the fan one in the toilet replacing the grotty uncleanable original.

jiginc
 
jignc said:
I replaced mine with a clear one much better as you say.

I fitted the fan one in the toilet replacing the grotty uncleanable original.

jiginc
Click to expand...

Where did you pick up a 12v supply for that? I'd like to fit an extractor fan there as well.
 
We have a fan in our van and wouldn't be without it, every time we cook it gets switched on and we have just ordered a new van and that has one as well.
 
Hi Graham,
Stacie here on the Practical Caravan team, hope you're well? I'd like to use this post as a short letter in the magazine and just wanted to check if you're OK with this?
Kind regards, Stacie
 
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